Falls of the Ohio State Park, IN

Located in Clarksville, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, is likely the first and only Indiana State Park I've set foot in. Encompassing some 160 acres along the north shore of the Ohio it's certainly not an expansive park but it provided me the opportunity to lace up my boots on my short weekend in the area.

The Falls of the Ohio were a place of some importance long before they became part of a State Park, however. As the only natural barrier to navigation along the entire 981 mile length of the Ohio, the 26-foot cascading falls were a choke-point to river travel which spurred the growth of both Louisville and Clarksville. Then, in October 1803, two men...one by the name of Meriwether Lewis and the other named William Clark...met for the first time at the Falls before setting out on their epic journey of discovery across the continent. It wasn't until three decades later that a canal was built, roughly opposite the river from the present-day park, that allowed commerce to move more freely down the Ohio.

Aside from its long cultural history the park is also of great interest to geologists and paleontologists as the limestone bluffs which create the falls also contain an incredible assortment of fossilized coral and other sea creatures. When the water levels of the Ohio River are low (usually during the summer) visitors to the park can go out on the exposed limestone shelves and see them up close and personal.

This would be a brief visit, as we still had to get back to North Carolina this day, so we'd only be logging about a mile in the park as well as making a brief stop over at the William Clark Home-site. Even so it was an enjoyable stretch of the legs in the type of place that I always enjoy going...namely a place largely unheard of that I'll probably never get the opportunity to visit again. To me, that makes it pretty special indeed...

Falls of the Ohio State Park, IN (8-11-13)

Entering Falls of the Ohio State Park, what very well might be the first and only State Park I've visited in Indiana. Unfortunately, the flashy visitor center was closed the day we visited...

Ohio River

Form the walk up to the visitor center are some nice views of the Ohio River...

Fossil Beds Trail

Marks on the sidewalk show how massive the Ohio can get on occasion, such as this one for the Flood of 1997...

Fossil Beds Trail

A short paved walkway leads down from the parking area to the riverfront and the fossil beds...

Fossil Beds Trail

A huge water-carved boulder located alongside the parking lot sports an amazing variety of fossils, typical of what one can find in the limestone bluffs within the park...

Fossil Beds Trail

One of the many fossils we saw on the previously pictured boulder...

Fossil Beds Trail

More fossils found on the previously pictured boulder...

Fossil Beds Trail

From the visitor center parking lot a winding concrete path leads down to the rivers edge and the fossil beds. The steel bridge in the background carries US-31 over the Ohio...

Fossil Beds

Water levels were fairly high so the primary fossil beds were submerged. It was still nice to clamber around a bit along the river, however...

Fossil Beds

Looking across the Ohio River to the shipping canal which were constructed to bypass the 'falls'. Actually more of a rapids, none-the-less, early in the river's history this was the only hazard to navigation found along the Ohio's entire 981 mile length...

Ohio River

Looking south across the Ohio to Louisville, Kentucky...

Fossil Beds Trail

Absolutely enormous logs were strewn up and down the river bank, testament to the power of the Ohio River when it decides to get grumpy...

Fossil Beds Trail

Well, now it was time to get on a real, albeit short, trail...

Woodland Loop Trailhead

The trail we'd be following on this hot day would be the Woodland Loop Trail, suitably short at just under a mile it would be just right for the younger members of our group...

Woodland Loop Trail

The first half of the trail would stay above the river in what was described to be an 'Upland Woodland' habitat of mixed Locust and Cottonwood...

Woodland Loop Trail

Though the thick canopy protected us from the sun from the most part, the humidity this day made it feel like a rain forest...

Woodland Loop Trail

Looking way up into the high canopy of a large cottonwood...

Woodland Loop Trail

About a quarter-mile in the trail made a swing out along the base of the huge levee which protects neighboring Jeffersonville...

Woodland Loop Trail

Always a big hit with the kids...stopping to watch the tent worms (actually, they're caterpillars) wriggling around in their silky home...

Woodland Loop Trail

After a brief descent we found ourselves making a left turn along a rather dry (and rather ugly) little creek known as Cane Run...

Woodland Loop Trail

It quickly became clear that for whatever reason most folks don't continue down to the Ohio River as the trail suddenly became very overgrown...

Woodland Loop Trail

Nearing the river, we found ourselves having to climb over and through huge logs strewn throughout the forest by past floods...

Woodland Loop Trail

The trail shortly broke out along the Ohio on this huge gravel sand bar strewn with driftwood...

Woodland Loop Trail

Cane Run, which we'd been following, didn't get any prettier at its confluence with the Ohio...

Ohio River

I had to scrape my way through some rather prickly brush to get this view of the Ohio River looking downstream...

Woodland Loop Trail

Passing through a very spacious grove of huge cottonwoods...

Woodland Loop Trail

We had pictured this half of the hike to be a scenic walk with lots of river views...what we got was this. Thick brush denied us any views and while it was a bit interesting (to me anyway) the heat of the day made the kids more than a little disappointed...

Woodland Loop Trail

This trail was listed as being 'easy' to 'moderate'...this must have been the 'moderate' part...

Woodland Loop Trail

Continuing along the river bank with no river in sight...

River Spur Path

While the rest of the group made a bee-line back to their air-conditioned cars, my boys and I wanted to see the river one more time. We noticed a side trail heading toward the bank and, to our surprise and pleasure, came out between these broken rock ledges...

River Spur Path

The edge of the Ohio River here was lined with low but surprisingly rugged bluffs. It would have been a great place to spend some time scrambling around but we knew we had others waiting on us so it was soon time to head out...

Lewis & Clark Plaque

After finishing our hike we drove over to the nearby homesite of George Rogers Clark, one of the more famous and successful generals of the Revolutionary War. Located by the parking lot was this plaque to the Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery. It was near here that Lewis and Clark met to set out on their epic journey to the Pacific...

George Rogers Clark Cabin

Though acquiring great fame for his accomplishments during the Revolutionary War, both Clark's wealth, fame, and reputation went into a steady decline in the following years. Sitting on a high bluff overlooking the lower portion of the Falls of the Ohio, Clark 'retired' here in the late 1700's and called this place home until his death of a stroke in 1818, at aged 65...

Ohio River

Self-proclaimed as the 'city that George Rogers Clark' founded, the modern city of Louisville is easily seen upriver from the Clark cabin...

George Rogers Clark Cabin

Perched on its bluff high overlooking the mighty Ohio River, it's worth noting that this cabin is actually just a 'representation' of the one Clark lived in. The original cabin was destroyed in 1854...

George Rogers Clark Cabin

The downstairs of the cabin is one single room which has been decorated to the frontier period in Indiana at the turn of the 19th Century...

George Rogers Clark Cabin

The upstairs is simply the bedroom and is sparsely decorated...

McGee Cabin

This is a reconstruction of the cabin lived in by Ben and Venus McGee, African-American indentured servants of George Rogers Clark. The cabin would have been originally located nearby in a small freed-slave community named Guinea Bottoms which was one of the first free-slave communities in the Northwest Territories. The community survived for over 100 years, from 1802 to 1920...

George Rogers Clark Plaque

"GEORGE ROGERS CLARK, 1752-1818"
Near this site stood the home of General George Rogers Clark
PIONEER-SOLDIER-PATRIOT
CONQUEROR OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
Who with dauntless heroism during the Revolutionary War invaded the enemy territory, captured the posts of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes and won for the United States the empire northwest of the Ohio River."